Mental Health Partners (MHP) has been awarded a two-year, $4-milion dollar demonstration grant by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to continue to work toward becoming a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC), the “gold standard” in the delivery of mental health and addiction recovery care. MHP is the first mental health center in Colorado, and only 1 of 52 in the nation, to receive this prestigious award.

“This award is a significant step in MHP’s vision to rely on health outcomes, population health management and a multi-disciplinary, team-based approach to transform the delivery of high-quality mental health and addiction recovery services to our communities,” said Matt Meyer, Chief Strategy Officer for Mental Health Partners. “This grant recognizes the time, energy and hard work MHP staff has put into implementing the building blocks of this vision, which includes the creation of our Integrated Health Home (IHH) and implementing a Behavioral Health Home (BHH) model, and that we are leaders in this field.”

Over the next four months, MHP will develop a strategy to meet certification requirements in six criteria domains. In addition, this grant helps MHP focus on reducing disparities in healthcare access and outcomes for three, key underserved subpopulations (Hispanic individuals, individuals experiencing homelessness, and members of the Armed Forces and Veterans and their families) by meeting six, main criteria areas: staffing; access; care coordination; scope of services; quality and other reporting; and organizational authority, governance and accreditation.

“We are still finalizing the details for each of these criteria focuses, but we are very excited, and thankful to SAMHSA, for this opportunity to increase our ability to reach populations that often face stigma, disparities and obstacles in accessing comprehensive behavioral health care,” said Toni Moon, Director of Population Health Management and CCBHC Implementation Team (CIT) Lead.